Personal Update on local Anti-Semitism and what we are doing about it

Passover is on the horizon. It is a time to celebrate our ancestors’ liberation from oppression. The traditional meal [seder] creates the atmosphere for reinstate hope that the freedom we yearn for can be achieved. Now-a-days, we need such reminder that there is work to be done.

Statistics indicate that hate-crimes are being committed at a greater rate now than in the last 2 years. Incidents against minorities—Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, immigrants—have always existed, but now we see it more than we anticipated. How bad is it? The Anti-Defamation League has released a report that shows a 57% increase in 2017 from 2016. These incidents range from swastikas drawn on buildings, desecration of cemeteries, to acts of violence against Jews. Locally, we haven’t seen that intensity, but many in this community have experienced an increase of anti-Semitism first hand– a remark here or there; an off color anti-Jewish joke told in front of us; a post that appeared on their Facebook feed. People have shared with me that a lot of the comments are coming from teenagers and school officials have been notified; in some cases, local police departments have gotten involved.

Let me share with you some of the things that people have shared with me since the fall; all these issues involve children:

*Children concerned about other students greeting each other with Nazi salutes in school hallways;

*Loose change thrown at Jewish students and being told to pick it up because Jews like money;

*A picture of a school district website with a picture of Adolf Hitler superimposed to show it as the news of the day;

*Families receiving prank phone calls that leave anti-Jewish messages on answering machines… and use technology to show that it was coming from a third party’s phone number;

*Jewish students being called “Jew” by classmates;

*Jewish students feeling uncomfortable as non-Jewish students tell anti-Jewish jokes in front of them; like “what is the differences between a Jew and a pizza? A pizza comes out of the oven.”

*A parent needing to drive their middle-school student back and forth because he is afraid of walking past of a gauntlet of students who have played “kick the Jew” when he got off the bus;

*A primary grade student who came off the school bus and asked her mother why the Jews killed Jesus?

*A child telling her Jewish friend that her mother doesn’t want them to be friends anymore because she is a Jew.

How do we respond to these?

First of all, many of our area school districts have been excellent partners in this regard. They take such incidents seriously and respond quickly. While they don’t share the outcomes [they can’t due to privacy issues], they do address them professionally and thoroughly. But the challenge is that they are reactive to situations; it is harder to prevent the acts in comparison to responding to them. Students and their families are reluctant at times to draw attention to their religious identity and they hesitate to lodge a complaint. One middle-school student told me that he doubts he will raise his kids as Jews because he doesn’t want them to deal with the stuff he has to deal with as one of a handful of Jews in his school. I confess that comment stung—a lot!

Shelly Shapiro is a staff member at the local United Jewish Federation of Northeast NY whose responsibility is to help respond to such incidents and help foster education to prevent them from occurring. She works closely with the ADL in this regard and for 30 years, she has helped develop curriculum to teach about the Holocaust and implement educational programs such as “A World of Difference” and “No Place for Hate” into school systems. She has told me that any response has to be multifaceted. It is not enough to complain when incidents occur, education in the classroom and community partnerships outside of the schools are essential to occur in order to stem the tide of anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry.

Recently Jonathan Weisman wrote a piece in the New York Times on the issue of rising number of anti-Semitism incidents. He wrote: “If not quite a crisis, it feels like a proto-crisis, something to head off, especially when the rise of anti-Semitism is combined with hate crimes against Muslims, blacks, Hispanics and immigrants… American Jews need to assert a voice in the public arena, we are not sheep.” He continued that this must be in partnership with American Jews committing themselves to have a better self-image, embracing Judaism as a vital part of American pluralism and finding a spiritual mean which is both relevant and personal. Based on these 2 ideas, I believe that if we want to head off any growth to Anti-Semitism in our area, Jews should feel pride in their Judaism and have confidence to address it as the Jewish community strongly advocates for educational programs that fights against it. But we don’t stand alone; we need to work with other community partners who will add their voices to advocate against racism and bigotry of any kind. This must be a team approach.

There are models of community partnership in our area. I am proud to be a part of “Schenectady Clergy against Hate”, which brings together Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Unitarians and Druids [all who have houses of worship in this community] and share in this mission. Our purpose statement is such: SCaH “is a non-partisan, multi-faith and interfaith coalition working to promote harmony, respect, and fellowship in the greater Schenectady area. Together, through a sharing of our unique and common religious teachings, we seek to foster understanding of one another. We are compelled through our various traditions to speak out against hatred, bigotry, and discrimination on the basis of appearance, race, ethnicity, country of origin, immigration status, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, ability status, or any other identity used to divide us.”

I admire the vision of Niskayuna School Superintendent, Dr. Cosimo Tangorra, who sees diversity education as a communal effort. He has brought school faculty and staff together with students, parents and community leaders to form the Environment Cultural Advisory Committee [ECAC] to strategize on how to address the issue of diversity in the school settings as a way of preventing racism and bigotry to flourish. This is a difficult challenge and as one person said, like turning an oil-tanker around in the Hudson River. But the objectives are set and they are designed to fit in with the mission statement of the school. According to the district’s website, the goals are set as:

The Niskayuna Central School District is committed to promoting the principles of inclusion and diversity as integral to the education of all students. In keeping with our district’s mission statement, our community believes in empowering each and every individual through education to better embrace socioeconomic, cultural, racial, gender, ability, ethnic, sexual and religious diversity. We are committed to developing a safe and healthy environment where each student’s self-esteem is nurtured to achieve responsible and compassionate citizenship.

Empowering each individual to make responsible choices:

Ensure equitable access to programs and practices

Develop mutual respect through sharing perspectives and experiences

Create a safe environment to voice opinions

Engage the community in supporting and building a healthy and safe learning atmosphere

Meet challenges:

Identify areas of diversity and how bias affects personal perspectives

Encourage the development of inclusive teaching and learning practices

Recognize, acknowledge, and respectfully coexist with various otherness in our community

Address bigotry and bias in order to build open-mindedness

Achieve personal success:

Affirm the uniqueness of each individual and embrace multiple pathways to academic success

Encourage individuals to be self-reflective, examine their viewpoints, and to modify assumptions when appropriate

Develop students’ abilities to look at issues from divergent perspectives

Empower a student’s integrity to acting justly, be honest in action and behave with self-discipline

Contribute to global society:

Create opportunities for community involvement and service

Develop commitment to identify and challenge inequity at various levels within our community

Develop a consciousness of social justice, an ethic of citizenship and a commitment to service

Support each other in achieving goals and objectives

The partnership models do exist. The curriculum components do exist. The vehicles for reporting and disciplining those who commit acts of hatred are there. Synagogues are working to build religious self-esteem. Yet, the incidents are increasing and that could be frustrating. But it does not weaken my resolve. In the Talmud, it is written: “It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are not free to desist from it either.”

Please continue to join together to eradicate anti-Semitism, indeed hatred in all forms, from our society.

Passover is a symbol of the freedom that eludes us. It also is the symbol of freedom we can achieve. Let’s do it…